


Monster Goo

by TheLateNightStoryTeller



Series: Stories from a Parallel Universe [5]
Category: Agents of SHIELD - Fandom
Genre: Evil Scientists - Freeform, F/M, Kidnapping, Multi, People get super powers, Post season 1 AU where Fitz and Simmons are together, monster goo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 06:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2641529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLateNightStoryTeller/pseuds/TheLateNightStoryTeller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set over a year in the future in a world where Fitz and Simmons are together. The team gets a new mission involving vacuums and goo. Of course, things do not go smoothly and Fitz might have fallen into the wrong pile of goop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Good Morning

"Good morning," a voice greeted cheerfully, bouncing a bit on the side of his bed so that he was shaken awake.

Leo grumbled at the sudden intrusion into his sleep but brightened when he realized who was waking him up.

"Jemma, you're not suppose to be in here," he scolded halfheartedly. He really didn't mind that she was in his room. Her bright, joyful face was a wonderful way to start the day even if it was starting earlier than he had intended.

"Coulson told me to come get you silly," she informed him teasingly her eyes laughing.

He smiled warmly at her, "Ah. Well if that's the case," he sat up and kissed her. Her lips felt cool on his, which were still warm from sleep and it sent a pleasant, tingling surge through his body when she returned the kiss and touched her forehead to his for a few heartbeats before pulling away.

"He didn't say to do that," she chuckled, her cheeks pink under her sparkling eyes. "I'm sure it's fine though," she added before bouncing up and down a few more times, "as long as you get up and come help me!"

He sighed and lay his head back onto his pillow wondering if she was ever going to realize he didn't perk up like daisy every morning. Sleep usually lingered like a fog for a few minutes before he was truly awake. She probably knew that though. It was probably the reason she came to his door every morning and sent her bubbling voice in like a beam from a lighthouse.

"Leo you can't go back to sleep," Jemma complained half exasperated, half amused but he smiled and closed his eyes.

She leaned down and kissed him quickly, sending another small tingle across his face, before patting his leg impatiently. "Up sleepy," she insisted playfully, "we have work to do."

"What work is that exactly?" he called after her as she skipped out of the room.

Her head appeared at the edge of the door. "We're building a vacuum," she informed him enthusiastically before disappearing again.

He wondered if he'd heard her correctly as he forced himself to get out of bed and change out of his pajamas.

He wondered as well, why Coulson had given her permissionn to come wake him up. Their team's leader had been clear from the beginning that they were suppose to stay out of each other's rooms. He remembered the conversation as he rolled on his socks and felt himself blush.

Jemma had been adamant that they be honest with him right away.

"We're more likely to find ourselves in trouble if we try to lie," she asserted, though she sounded nervous and smiled uncomfortably when she said it. "It'll go much more smoothly if we tell the truth as soon as possible."

He'd seen that she'd had a point and, reluctantly, agreed to reveal their relationship rather than trying to keep it a secret.

Coulson's reaction hadn't been as bad as either of them expected. He seemed unsurprised which made sense because it had been a long, sometimes painful, sometimes amazing but always somehow obvious journey for the pair to get to the point they were at. It made perfect sense that their journey had been noticed by the people who were as close to them as family.

So when they told him he nodded like this was a problem he had already been working through in his head for a while and told them, "Don't let it interfere with your work. I need you to still be FitzSimmons."

"Of course we're still FitzSimmons!" They exclaimed together.

Just because they were a couple didn't mean they were going to stop being partners. He wasn't ever planning to give up teamwork and brilliant plans and high fives because those were part of why he loved being with Jemma. He also loved the kisses, those were very nice.

"And not on the bus," Coulson added, "not in any Shield facility."

Jemma had nodded seriously in agreement but he'd felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"By that you mean...I mean specifically you mean..."

"Sex Fitz," Coulson clarified unfazed, "I mean sex specifically."

Leo turned red and stared at his feet, "Ah...right. Yes sir."

Jemma sighed and shook her head. "We're all adults here Leo," she scolded, "It's nothing to be squeamish about. It's a perfectly normal part of life and humans are one of the few animals fortunate enough to enjoy doing it..."

She began a detailed explanation of the process in humans, walking them through what exactly did make it enjoyable for them. It was actually pretty interesting, however her specificity was causing his face to become redder and redder and Coulson was looking increasingly uncomfortable until finally he cut her off.

"Thank you Agent Simmons," he interrupted, cheeks pink. "I need to go back to work now."

"Oh," she seemed disappointed. "that's to bad, I was just getting to the interesting part."

"Biology isn't really my thing," he said quickly backing out of the room.

At last, she noticed his embarrassment and muttered something about how men were too squeamish about certain things.

Leo disagreed. Coulson at least had been incredibly mature about the matter, as had they. They had kept to his rules and hadn't done anything at any of Shield's facilities or on the Bus.

And they were still definitely FitzSimmons. They were an exceptional team whose talents were a valuable asset to Shield. However this morning, if he'd heard Jemma correctly, their talents were going to be a valuable asset in the field of vacuum design.

He passed Skye on his way to the lab and they greeted each other groggily. Neither he, nor his friend were easy risers.

"What's going on?" Skye asked, yawning. "Why did Triplett come wake me up at six thirty in the morning? He didn't even sound tired! He just knocked on my door all chipper like it wasn't only twenty minutes after sunrise. With May away at the Playground I thought I'd get a day to sleep in but I guess not. How is anyone so cheerful so early?" she shook her head.

"Jemma's the same way. They're like happy little birds," he said, shaking his head too but they were both smiling. "I think we're making a vacuum." he added and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"A happy little bird told me," he informed her and they giggled together as they entered the lab.

To their surprise, May was standing beside Coulson and Triplett while Jemma scuttled around busily in the background.

"Miss me?" May asked, the corners of her mouth tugging up slightly.

"I missed sleep," Skye teased but she looked happy to see her and nudged her shoulder good naturedly as she came to stand beside her.

"Surprise," Triplett grinned. "May told me to go get you, can't miss morning sparing lessons."

"Why were you up?" Leo heard her exclaim but he didn't hear the answer because Jemma had noticed they were there and she hurried over to him, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the bench where she had his tools all set out.

He liked the feel of her hand in his and he rubbed it gently with his thumb, causing her turn her head and gaze at him affectionately for moment before she began filling him in on their early morning mission.

If anyone noticed the exchange, they didn't let on that they did. Besides, 'no holding hands' was not a rule.

"There's been spill of... well... we aren't entirely sure exactly what it is but it's Shield's and we need to clean it up." she explained. "It spilled in a very popular park and they're getting a lot of complaints. The story is that a gas line is leaking though, so I'm guessing that's enough to deter most rational people."

"It's always a gas line," he mused thinking she could probably have come up with a better story. "Why don't we know what it is?"

She leaned in towards him, the excitement clear on her face and said gleefully, "It's alien goop. Top secret, Shield was sending it to us to find out what it was made of. Coulson says it's leftovers from the inside of one of those creatures that attacked New York. Wouldn't it have been amazing to see one alive?" she gushed. "Terrifying, of course," she added quickly she saw his alarmed expression. "It'd be a horrible idea to go up and poke one like what happened with those skelter beetles. But fascinating all the same. And now we actually get to study what's inside of them! How fun!"

Leo was amazed at how much love you could feel for someone for bubbling on about monster goo.

"Did I hear you right that we're building a vacuum?" he asked his eyes not leaving her face as he pieced together why they would need one.

"To clean up the goop." she chirped just after he guessed the answer.

He squeezed her hand before letting go and picking up a tablet to go through his inventory of parts. "Let's get started then," he said.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fringe reference in this story is the Skelter Beetles Jemma mentions. The beetles are a parasite of sheep in the other universe. A scientist named Dr. Silvia creates giant ones that can live in humans when sheep go extinct to continue his research on their enzymes which he hopes he can use to make a flu vaccine to save lives.(But he kills people with beetles...)
> 
> This was the first story I ever wrote in this series and I wasn't planning on writing anything else when I did, so it might seem like a stand alone story even though it fits in with the rest.


	2. The Thief

"You're sure you've secured your mask on properly?" she asked, turning his head and checking that it was attached correctly. "Fumes from cinnabar can be extremely dangerous. The ancient Romans believed mining it was a death sentence."

"I've done this before you know," he protested, clearly offended.

She sighed and took a step back, "I know," she told him, being sure that his eyes met hers, "Just humour me okay sweetheart?"

His face softened under the mask. "Okay."

She smiled at him and proceeded to insure that he had put it on properly. Sweetheart was not something she often called him but he melted almost instantly whenever she did. It was a word that had come to mean many things; be careful, I love you, what a wonderful thing you just did. However in situations like these it meant something very specific. It meant I am protecting you, not because I think you are weak or foolish, but because you are precious to me.

When she was finished he examined her mask.

"It's on right, don't worry," she assured him, letting him look it over.

"Just humour me okay?" he laughed and she chuckled at him.

They turned on the coms devices, put on their gloves, slipped into the plastic suits and began setting up their vacuum. They'd agreed to name it Apple, after the poison apple from Snow White. It seemed fitting because it was designed to be filled up with large quantities of toxic alien goop.

The cinnabar rich, orangy -red goop spread over an area of around three meters squared and the plants beneath it were withered and dead. The machine would suck them up too, however she had put in filter to separate them from the goop so that they had a more or less pure sample to work with when they got back to the lab. They would plant new ones like Water Hyssop which were able to leach the mercury from the cinnabar out of the soil.

She peered at him from around the vacuum, grinning. "Are you my mummy?"

"Do you have to make that joke every time?" he complained though she could see he was amused.

"It's funny every time," Triplett's voice insisted over the coms and she nodded in agreement.

He shook his head and continued setting up.

"I think we need a pizza and Doctor Who night, so that we can convert Fitz to our side." Triplett suggested.

"What a wonderful idea." Jemma agreed. He'd already seen every episode with her but there was nothing wrong with rewatching them a few more times. "What do you think Fitz?" she inquired, walking over to stand beside him.

"I'll get the pizza," Triplett offered.

"And I'll hold your hand if you get scared," she promised.

"You two are always ganging up on me," he joked. "It isn't fair, with your threats of pizza and hand holding."

The three of them giggled together as Jemma and Leo finished up with the vacuum.

"I'm crashing your party," Skye announced in their ears. Like Triplett, she was scouting for more goop between the trees. They each had detectors to alert them to high levels of mercury.

She received three overlapping responses.

"We'd love to have you," Triplett said.

"Of course," Jemma answered.

"Bring snacks," Leo replied.

"The four of you need to get back to work," May scolded, though Jemma was sure she heard her chuckle.

It became silent for a moment before Leo switched on the vacuum and it began humming loudly and swallowing up red goop and plants. Jemma set to work planting the water hyssops in the bare patches of ground left behind. Her eyes drifted curiously towards the goop a few times as she worked. She knew, from the small sample they'd received that the substance was high in cinnabar, however she was curious what it was dissolved in. Not a lot of substances would readily dissolved the compound, though she'd heard about it happening in organic matter found in a swamp. The goop also contained many tiny cells whose purpose she had not had time to learn. Now that they had so much of it though, she was certain she would unravel it's mysteries.

When they were finished Leo decided it was time for lunch and her gurgling stomach agreed.

Together they found a sunny spot a safe distance from the spill site and took off their gear. They muted their coms, but kept them on in case their teammates needed them, so that they could enjoy some rare time alone together away from the Bus.

Not that they were truly alone. The others were close by, in the woods or on the trail. She doubted any of them would mind though, that she leaned against Leo as they munched on carrots and sandwiches and chatted about pizza toppings and aliens.

The park was beautiful, she understood why it was so popular. Where it hadn't been destroyed it was green dotted with yellow and purple flowers. There were broad, leafy trees that cast dappled shade on the path which wove through it and birds chirped happily in their branches. They probably weren't all happy, she reminded herself. Some were chirping 'go away' or ' oh no a fox'.

Whatever the birds were feeling, Jemma was glad to be where she was. Between the sunshine, the promise of goop to study and Leo warm and soft beside her, she felt as happy as they sounded.

She couldn't seem to sit still, she was too excited about the goop and the sunshine so when they were finished she stood and held out her hands.

"Would you like to dance?" she offered.

"In a field?" he laughed taking her hand and standing with her.

"Just watch out for gofer holes," she kidded, and he grinned at her.

"I would love to," he answered.

He began to hum and they held hands while swaying back and forth. Sometimes one of them would spin the other or they would move closer or further apart. A few times she gave him a quick peck before pulling away causing his grin to widen under his shining eyes. They weren't going to win any competitions but it was fun and it felt wonderful to have him close to her.

She was a little disappointed when the timer went off on her watch, telling them it was time to go pack up the vacuum.

"We'd better go," she sighed.

"I guess so," he agreed, disappointedly.

She pulled him towards her and kissed him one more time. He kissed her back and they let this one linger for more than few seconds before pulling away.

It looked like he wanted to say something but he was stopped by a loud clang from the direction of their vacuum.

They exchanged an alarmed glance; no one was suppose to be over there. The area was still dangerous and if some unwitting civilian had wandered into the park...

The two of them rushed back into their gear, slipping on fresh pairs of gloves as they sprinted towards the direction of the sound. Could whoever it was have gotten to the goop in the vacuum? In her head she ran through the location of their emergency decontamination shower and the procedures to use it.

In her haste, she tripped on a gofer hole and cursed loudly, motioning for Leo to run ahead when he hesitated. In the distance she viewed a figure tampering with the vacuum. A stream of goop was running out of the end of hose and back onto the ground. The figure was, thankfully, wearing a gas mask and scooping some of it up into a container. This wasn't a civilian she realized, suddenly frightened.

As Leo reached them the figure pulled out a gun and there was a loud bang after which he twisted forward and fell into the goop. He rolled over and sat up, sending a wave of relief through her before she saw the assailant point their gun down at him.

"Stop!" she shouted, trying to sound menacing, like she had more to fight them with than rubber gloves and a gas mask.

The woman turned to her, gun aimed at her face and Jemma gasped, expecting her to fire.

Maybe she was going to but the gun flew up into the air out of her hands and the woman stared up at it, confused, an instant before Skye came barreling down on her, knocking her to the ground before the weapon landed with a thud beside them. The woman was strong and she managed to kick Skye off and scoop up her container before racing off into the woods.

"Are you OK?" Skye demanded, looking back and forth between them anxiously.

Jemma nodded and Leo gave her a thumbs up and she sprinted into the trees after the thief.

Jemma ran over to Leo and took him in, feeling every part of him to be sure he wasn't hurt. He winced when she got to his arm and she pulled back her glove to see dark red blood mixed in with the orange-red of the goop. It wasn't a large wound, the bullet must have grazed his arm, probably because he had surprised the woman who hadn't heard him coming over the noise of the vacuum.

"We have to clean this out," she said, trying to keep the alarm from her voice. If too much of the mercury got into his bloodstream he could be in as much trouble as if she'd shot him in the chest.

"Yeah," he agreed. He seemed stunned by what had just happened. He gave his head a shake and stared up at her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she replied quickly before she pulled him up and guided him hurriedly over to the decontamination shower.

She had him take off the plastic suit and his shirt before hosing down his arm. The suit had protected him from most of the goop but some had slipped through the slash made by the bullet.

He grimaced and closed his eyes when she sprayed the water across the wound.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. It looked like it hurt but she had to get as much of the goop out as possible.

"It isn't you who should be sorry," he pointed out and she knew he was thinking of woman who'd stolen a sample of the goop.

When she was finished she disinfected the wound and wound gauze around it. Then she wrapped him up in a towel and held him tightly.

"I'm fine," he assured her, returning the embrace with both arms.

That wasn't necessarily true. The cinnabar from the goop could have entered into his bloodstream. They'd have to watch him for the next day or so for symptoms of mercury poisoning. But they would deal with that if it happened. Right now they were both fine and she decided to focus on that. If it weren't for Skye it could have been a lot worse.

"Good thing I have you and Skye on my side," he chuckled, still holding her. "I'm not sure what exactly you were expecting to do though..." His voice turned serious as he said the last part.

"Honestly, I was considering throwing my gas mask at her." she admitted.

"Brilliant plan," he joked, the humour returning to his voice.

"Better than yours," she teased and felt him shake with laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fringe reference in the story is that the monsters that attacked New York (I recently discovered they are called Leviathans) have mercury in them. In Fringe, creatures that are half human, half machine called shapeshifters have blood filled with mercury.
> 
> Mining cinnabar is dangerous because of the toxic mercury fumes. The toxic effects of cinnabar were known by the ancient Romans. Because mining it was considered a death sentence, they only sent slaves or convicts to do the work
> 
> I forgot to explain that the "Are you my mummy" is a line form doctor who. There is an episode in which a creepy kid in a gas mask is killing people and asking "Are you my mummy." No one is a dummy for not getting it but I am a dummy for not explaining it.
> 
> (I got the cinnibar information from The Elements by Jack Challoner and wikipedia.)
> 
> By the way, in the real world Fitz would probably have mercury poisoning from getting the goop in his cut. Maybe, I dunno what the exposure needs to be but there is a reason in the story why he doesn't.
> 
> Skye has superpowers in this universe, I figured that seems to be the direction the series is taking anyway so I went with it. 
> 
> I toyed with having Jemma call Leo several things other than sweetheart. Sweetie, darling, dearest, love, lovey. There is really no reason I chose sweetheart over the others but that he actually does have a sweet heart. It will probably be relevant later.


	3. The Price

"What kind of pizza place delivers to a plane, no questions asked?" Skye demanded incredulously as Triplett placed the hot, wonderful smelling box on the table in front of them.

"Damiano's," he told her laughing as he took his place between her and Leo. "I've never been anywhere they won't deliver to."

Leo sat with Jemma pressed against him, her head resting on the front of his shoulder and, despite the mouthwatering aroma from the pizza, he didn't want to move. She moved instead, reaching up for a kiss before getting them both a plate. The pair probably wasn't suppose to be displaying their affection for each other so openly on the Bus but he felt that today they should be allowed to break the rules.

They'd both had a gun pointed at them, his heart and her head (both very important). Jemma had gone up against an armed bad guy with only a gas mask and he'd actually been shot. He had bullet wound on his arm for crying out loud! And they had done their job outstandingly despite the assault. They had the monster goo, the mess (which Shield had made by the way) was gone and the soil was being cleaned. They'd earned a few kisses and plenty of cuddles thank you very much.

Jemma had chuckled at him when he'd explained all this to her earlier but she'd agreed with him. Or maybe she was just worried about the mercury in his blood, he wasn't entirely sure. Either way she had concurred that kisses and cuddles were in order and none of their team had commented so far on their behavior.

They might also think he was poisoned though...

Anyhow the mood was a happy one and Jemma leaned back against him as they shared a plate of pizza. Her scent was comforting and he loved how alive and joyful she felt as they watched her Doctor Who DVDs with their friends and the way her body shook when she laughed.

She and Triplett were explaining to Skye what was happening because she was a little lost and he savoured the sound of their voices.

Between all of that and the wonderful pizza he was chewing on, he was incredibly content. It was hard to believe that only a few hours ago he had been scared out of his mind.

He had finished his pizza and was thinking about the snacks Skye had brought when it happened.

They had come to a particularly creepy part of the episode and Jemma decided he was going to be scared so she sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck, hands covering his eyes.

"I'll tell you when it's over," she whispered as that horrifying kid with the gas mask attempted to get into the house the protagonists were hiding in. He heard the ringing of both the phone and the doorbell from the televison and wondered why Jemma insisted on covering his eyes rather than his ears.

"Or I can just see when it's over," he protested good naturedly, trying to peer through her fingers.

"No, this is better," she decided teasingly.

He felt a joyful tide of love run through him and there was a loud bang before silence.

He and Skye screamed and the other two let out a shout of surprise.

"What happened?" he squeaked.

Jemma lowered her hands from his eyes but her arms remained around his shoulders and he saw the television screen was cracked around a small hole. Floating in front of the hole was one of the television's metal components. The small piece of metal drifted towards them and, before any of them thought to react, it settled onto his arm, melting and reforming itself so it fused with his skin and curved with the arm.

His first though was that it was strange that it hadn't hurt. His second though was what the hell had just happened?

"Oh no," Jemma gasped.

He turned to her and saw that her eyes were wide with fear and he knew that she was remembering another time, a long time ago, when metal had floated through the air.

-\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\-

"Skye wins again." Triplett announced cheerfully after the clink of two quarters falling to the floor.

"Well she has been doing this a lot longer than I have," Leo pointed out defensively.

"We invented this game two hours ago," Skye reminded him giggling.

"Oh you know what I mean," he countered and Jemma could hear he was smiling. "You've been making things fly around for ages now."

"You do have an advantage," Triplett agreed.

"I thought, as a judge, you were suppose to be neutral." Skye joked.

Jemma looked up, grinning, from her work.

Despite the earlier scare, Leo seemed perfectly fine. There was nothing physically wrong with him so far as she could tell, though it would be an understatement to say his blood sample was a little strange.

It was filled with the same tiny cells from the goop but they didn't appear to be causing him any harm. She suspected they were the source of what he and Skye had deemed his, 'new super powers.'

They were keeping him in a makeshift glass quarantine in the corner of the lab because metal kept shooting through the air and fusing itself to his skin.

He had patches of different shades of silver all over his arms and had insisted she prioritize finding a way to remove them.

"It'd be useful if I got into a knife fight," he'd told her, "but, honestly, right now it's just freaking me out."

She had promised to make it her second priority, right after insuring he was healthy.

In the past few hours, he had warmed up to his current situation due to his discovery that, even through the glass, he could make metal fly around the room.

"I'm just like Magneto!" he exclaimed, making a quarter spin around her head. "Except, you know, I'd be an X-man not a bad guy."

She'd chuckled at him, pleased that he was still in good spirits and that he wasn't frightened.

Though she wouldn't admit it to him, she was still incredibly anxious. Super powers he may have but if they had learned anything from the centipede project it was that powers came with a price. And sometimes that price was more than your body could pay.

For the moment though, he seemed alright. He and Skye were starting another quarter race, this time Triplett was cheering him on.

"I like to cheer for the underdog," he laughed when Skye hit his arm and Leo had grumbled about not being an underdog before taking another bite of his chocolate bar.

He had been eating even more than usual this evening. She'd seen him scarf down six slices of pizza and he'd made his way through his entire stash of snacks without slowing down. He'd also eaten five radishes which was peculiar because he didn't like radishes. Now he was motoring through Skye's stash of chocolate bars.

Jemma had been calling him the Hungry Caterpillar as a joke to ease her own apprehension but she couldn't shake the unease which settled into the pit of her stomach so she had decided to check his blood sugar levels.

The results of the test were coming back right at that moment. She frowned at them and looked them over a few more times to be sure she was reading them correctly. There had to be a mistake.

She'd taken a sample only an hour ago, after six slices of pizza, two chocolate bars and a bag of pretzels. His blood glucose should have been elevated but it was incredibly low, as if he hadn't eaten in several hours.

"Stop," she shouted, unable to keep the alarm from her voice. "Enough with the quarters, you need to stop using your powers."

There was a ding as they fell to the floor and the others stared at her with wide, confused eyes.

"Fitz you need to stop using your powers," she ordered.

He searched her face from behind the glass and she saw his eyes fill with terror as he took in her expression.

"Jemma what's happening?" he asked quietly.

Her hands shook a little as she struggled to find the words to answer him.

'Everything comes with a price,' she thought grimly, feeling suddenly sick.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fringe reference in this chapter is Damiano's. That is the pizza place Olivia and Peter always order from. I think Olivia had them on speed dial. It is that or Chinese food.
> 
> Snarky Fitz (is he snarky?) is inspired by notapeppers stories.
> 
> So I don't know much about blood glucose except the basics. Really low is bad (but so is really high) and it should be higher after you eat. Your brain cells rely solely on sugar so if your blood sugar levels drop too low you can fall into a comma. This story is pretty science fictioney though. The idea here is that the tiny cells are using up all his reserves which is fine in an Leviathan but in a human it is a bit too much strain.
> 
> Also I don't know if you can test blood glucose levels in an hour. That may be a bit fast. Though I remembered after I wrote this that people with diabetes have machines to check it quickly (under a minute I think). I don't know if that would be the same kind of test however, or if they would have something like that on the bus.
> 
> Fitz's new powers are not exactly like Magnetos, there is more he can do than move metal but shhhh no spoilers.


	4. Trial and Error

"Have you made any progress at all?" Coulson asked Jemma who stood between May and Skye in his office. It was early in the morning but she hadn't slept so it still felt like it was yesterday.

'Of course I have,' she thought frustratedly, 'what do you think I've been doing all night?' The anxiousness in his voice stopped her from saying it out-loud though. "I've ruled a few things out." she informed him calmly. "The vaccine was a dead end."

"What went wrong?" he asked. "It didn't work?"

She shook her head. "It did what it was suppose to. It caused the rat's immune systems to attack the foreign cells but..." she sighed. "Their immune systems couldn't kill the cells, the rats just got sick."

"How do you kill the cells then?" he asked. "If his body can't do it..."

"Poison them." she informed him, wondering why he needed her to explain all this to him. "The tricky part is finding something that will kill the cells but won't kill the rats." 'Or Leo,' she added silently.

"Any progress on that?" he wondered.

She didn't have time for this, she had work to do. "Sir why am here?" she demanded.

He frowned at her tone but didn't comment on it. "On top of finding out what you know so that we can share it with other Shield scientists," he explained patiently. "I wanted to share with all of you some new information we've obtained about the people who discovered the goop. They were infected. Three of them were exposed to the goop during the spill."

"What happened to them?" Skye asked worriedly. "Are they OK?"

"They were found dead last night," he said and Jemma felt her heart being squeezed before he added, "not from the goop. I'm not sure any of them even knew they were sick... they were murdered."

"Murdered?" May repeated, raising her eyebrows.

"All of them?" Skye asked incredulously, "Did someone want the goop?"

Jemma thought of the woman who had assaulted them but she couldn't seem to speak. They were found dead. Dead because they were murdered not because they were sick but she knew they probably would have died anyway if no one had killed them. How long would it have taken? How much longer until...

"We thought that at first," Coulson continued waking her from her thoughts and she knew by 'we' he meant Shield, not himself. "But given Fitz's abilities we think it might be connected to something else. "

"Something other than the goo you mean?" May inquired.

Coulson's eyes shifted nervously to Skye before he answered. "Someone is going around murdering people with abilities."

May and Jemma turned to Skye and she felt suddenly protective of her friend. If anyone wanted to hurt her, or Leo, they'd have to get through her first. By the way May moved closer to Skye she suspected she felt the same way.

"Oh." Skye replied, her expression unreadable.

"We have a team working on that at the moment," Coulson assured them. "We can join them after."

"After we make sure Fitz is alright." Skye insisted determinedly and the rest of them nodded in agreement.

"Speaking of Fitz," Coulson said slowly. "I was wondering Skye if you could use your abilities to help him."

"You want me to try to move all the cells out of him with my mind?" she asked surprised. "I don't think-"

"Your other ability." he clarified quietly and the room fell silent.

"No." Skye exclaimed finally, shaking her head and looking horrified. "I can't," she turned to Jemma. "Simmons I'm sorry...I can't, I'd kill him."

"Don't apologize," she told her, finding her tongue. "I don't want you to. It's an awful idea." she faced Coulson again. "It's an awful idea!" she repeated more forcefully.

Skye had another ability besides telekinesis however it was an unspoken rule that no one talked about it. She could turn things off with her mind. Lights, televisions, radios, people...

Coulson probably wanted her to try to target the cells but Jemma knew she had nowhere near that level of control, if that amount of control was even possible. Once she'd figured out exactly what she could do Skye had stopped using that ability even to turn off lights.

"It was only a suggestion," May pointed out calmly.

"I just thought you were running out of ideas," he defended guiltily.

"I have lots of ideas," she snapped, "much better ideas than that. Sorry Skye," she added, squeezing her shoulder. "I know you'd never-"

"I'd never use it." Skye finished determinedly. Their eyes met and she knew they understood each other.

"May I go now?" Jemma demanded and Coulson nodded.

Skye caught up with her on her way to the lab.

"Don't be mad at him," she appealed, matching her pace. "He just wants to help Fitz. He cares about him, we all do."

"Then he should let me work instead of shooting out stupid ideas," she grumbled. "He shouldn't have asked you to do that," she added stopping and looking her friend in the eyes. "We all promised we'd never ask you to use that power."

Skye shrugged but Jemma could tell she was unhappy. "Doing what we do makes it hard to keep promises like that."

"Doing what we do is the reason for promises like that," Jemma argued stubbornly.

Skye sighed. "I just wish I could help. I feel so useless."

Jemma smiled encouragingly at her. "You already saved us earlier," she reminded her. "That was more than helpful. You could always get more food," she suggested. "Sweets, like candy and ice-cream. Oh and Fitz shouldn't be sleeping on the floor, we need to find a sleeping bag that doesn't have a zipper."

Skye grinned back at her, "I'll round up Triplett and get on it." she promised. "Where is he anyway?"

Jemma didn't need to answer because they heard his laughter spilling out of the lab. The two of them entered to find him playing chess with Leo. The board was outside the glass box and Triplett was moving the pieces.

"I can't believe your cat just ate all your carrots," he chuckled.

"Neither could my mum," Leo chuckled back, "which is why I got away with it."

Jemma smiled because she'd heard this story before and it was good to see them enjoying themselves. Leo still seemed fine except for the multitude of empty juice bottles and chocolate bar wrappers splayed out around him. Hopefully it would still be a while before he started feeling sick. With any luck she'd find a way to get rid of the greedy little cells before he did.

His face brightened when he saw her. "What did Coulson want?" he asked cheerfully.

"Just an update," she told him as she walked over and settled down just outside the box, careful not to knock over their game. She decided to leave out Coulson's ludicrous suggestion for Skye's sake.

"And to tell us some psycho is killing off people with powers." Skye added.

Triplett and Leo frowned at that.

"You should get on that," Leo recommended.

"Not until you're better," Skye protested.

Triplett nodded in agreement. "There are other teams," he insisted.

"That's ridiculous," he told them. "We don't need the whole team on this."

"Well we're on it anyway," Triplett said crossing his arms.

"In fact we have a mission right now," Skye grinned. "We're getting you some more munchies. C'mon Triplett."

Jemma thought Leo looked a little sick at the mention of food but he thanked them as they left.

"I need to get back to work," she said, standing up. "I may need another blood sample soon though."

"You're welcome in my box anytime," he kidded, grinning at her. How was he so calm? "Maybe you could stay in a little longer this next time." he added hopefully and she finally saw a hint of apprehension in his expression.

"I could stay in a few minutes longer," she agreed. She wanted to go in right then and hold him for a long time but she would have to change first (the metal from her clothes would stick to him) and she needed to find a way get him better. She wasn't sure how much time she had before a constant supply of food wasn't enough. He was already starting to look weary.

He kissed the front of his fingers and placed them against the glass. She returned the gesture feeling connected to him, despite the barrier between them. He would be with her while she worked, she reminded herself, to give out suggestions and cheer her on. Nothing could ever really keep them apart.

/-/-/-/

Several hours later Leo sat in his box, watching Jemma work while guzzling down another bottle of juice from the cooler Triplett had slipped in for him. He had never imagined he'd get tired of eating however here he was, hungry but already sick of the juice. Earlier May had brought him a stack of his favourite chocolate bars and Coulson had delivered a tub of classic butterscotch ice cream. (That was actually the name on the packaging: Classic Butterscotch.)

He was so sick of sweet things.

"You need to get some sleep," he insisted after Jemma had nodded off for the third time and nearly toppled onto her work.

"I'll try just one more," she promised, shaking herself awake and plastering an awkward smile onto her face. "I'm using some of the goop as a solvent for the toxin this time. Hopefully those little devils will soak it all up like they soak up all your sugar. I finally managed to filter out the cinnabar. Those damn little cells seem to be filled with it. It may be a bit risky to put more of it into you but I think you're about as infected as you're going to get at this point... maybe infected is the wrong word...though you certainly aren't healthy. You'll be fine of course because... you'll be fine. Fit as the proverbial fiddle. I just want to try one more. It'll work this time. Did I tell you about the goop? I managed to filter out the cinnabar."

She was rambling, talking in circles. It was eleven at night and she hadn't stopped for a break in seven hours. She'd been awake for almost forty one. The others had gotten some sleep last night but she'd refused to stop working despite her exhaustion. Fifteen minutes ago she had been shouting at the rats for getting metal stuck to them as if they were doing it on purpose just to foil her work.

"Jemma go to sleep." he begged. "Just for a few hours. I'm not letting you stick something into me you concocted after calling a rat a dirty rotten traitor."

"I'm sticking it into the rat first," she snapped. "And it'll work."

He flinched at her sudden change in tone. "I know, I'm sorry. Of course it'll work." he apologized. He didn't know why he'd said that. He trusted her totally and completely. She'd never give him something if she wasn't sure it was going to help him or at the very least not make things worse. "I didn't mean that, I'm just tired... And hungry."

Her shoulders sagged and he thought he saw tear run down her face before she turned away. "I'm sorry too," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have yelled at you. You're the one who's..."

"Got super powers." he finished trying to sound cheerful.

She turned back to him and smiled. He noticed her eyes were red from exhaustion and she had large dark circles hanging under them. It looked like she was the sick one.

She peeled off her gloves and walked over to his glass box. He placed his hand against the wall and she placed her's over it.

"Go to sleep," he said again.

She nodded hazily and stood up. Without saying anything, she left the room.

'She must really be out of it,' he though. 'she didn't even say goodnight.' He was a little sad she hadn't.

He was finished another bottle of juice and sliding into his sleeping bag (which had no Zipper because Skye had cut it off and then sewn the bag back together) when she reappeared, dressed in pyjamas.

"Come to say goodnight?" he asked, glad she'd returned but puzzled by her clothes. He hadn't expected her to take the time to change, especially if she was only planning to sleep for a few hours.

She nodded and crossed the room to his corner. Then she opened the side of the box and slipped inside.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. He'd thought he'd finally gotten through to her about taking a nap.

"Going to sleep," she replied as if he'd asked a stupid question.

"In here?" he exclaimed.

"Why not?" she yawned, squeezing into the sleeping bag beside him.

"I don't think Coulson would-" he began.

"I don't care what he would say," she interrupted defiantly. "You're right, I need to sleep, but I'm not leaving you right now."

"It's that bad huh?" he joked but she didn't appear amused. He swallowed, feeling his courage leave him. "Jemma," he asked, "am I going to... I mean...It wouldn't be your fault if..."

"I won't let anything happen to you," she promised, intertwining her fingers with his.

"Of course not but if-"

"There is no 'if' in this scenario," she asserted shuffling forward to kiss the space between his eyes. "Go to sleep."

"OK," he agreed but they continued to stare at each other.

"I love you," she told him, managing a real smile.

"I love you too." he replied, feeling brave again.

He closed his eyes and felt her stroke the side of his face with her thumb. She continued the motion as he drifted off into sleep. It didn't take long; he was exhausted and her warm presence was soothing. He fell asleep feeling happy and safe.

/-/-/

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coulson gave Fitz classic butterscotch ice cream because it said classic on the label and he liked that. Butterscotch because that is an old-timey, classic flavour. (right?)
> 
> Jemma changed into pyjamas because her clothes have metal on them. (zippers, wires, etc...)
> 
> I gave Skye a new super power. It is kinda scary but I remember Ward talking to her about how he though she was a monster (not that she is at all!) and I figured that maybe she had a more frightening power than telekinesis. It is only a guess of course. Feel free to tell me if you don't like it.


	5. Abducted

Jemma awoke to a sharp, pointed pain in her neck. Her eyes flew open but she was unable to move.

Leo was awake too. their eyes locked and she saw her own terror reflected in his. They were paralysed, she guessed by whatever had been stuck into her neck (and his as well) and there was someone moving in the room.

A million questions sped through her head. What had they been injected with? Who had gotten onto the bus? Why had whoever it was paralysed them rather than shooting them? Was whatever they had been injected with going to kill them? Couldn't she just attach the toxin to sugar so the cells would absorb it?

'Really?' she raged at herself. 'You couldn't have thought of that earlier? Excellent timing Jemma.'

It didn't matter anyhow if they were both going to die now. His fingers were still intertwined with her own and she took comfort in the fact that that would be the last thing she felt.

It would be, anyway, if whoever it was wanted to kill them. Their actions so far had indicated otherwise. She tried to smile at Leo with her eyes, to tell him it was going to be OK. She was sure his eyes were smiling back.

Then she heard the click of a gun being loaded and her terror returned.

"This way is easier," a woman's voice whispered and Jemma suspected she was talking over a coms device. "But-... How much more than you can she know?" A long pause. "Fine."

The woman loomed over them and Jemma caught a glimpse of her face through the darkness before turning her eyes back to Leo. His eyes were bright and she felt a tear streak across her nose as they silently said goodbye to each other.

Then he was being pulled away, out of the sleeping bag, and his hand was yanked out of her own.

'No,' she thought, trying desperately to move, scream, anything.

She saw the woman stuff him into a bag like he was giant doll and begin pulling him away, out of her sight. She heard the door to the box open and close and then the sound of footsteps and dragging which faded away into silence.

She needed to do something. The woman was getting away, taking Leo with her. She needed to do something but she couldn't do anything except cry silently.

/-/-/

Jemma ran through the profiles of former female Shield agents matching the description she'd created from the face that taunted her cruelly from behind her eyes. One of them might match but it was a long list. Skye was beside her with her laptop, hacking security cameras in the area and trying to find an image of the woman's face so they could run it through facial recognition but there was a chance no such image existed.

The woman had to be a Shield agent, or connected to one somehow. The paralytic she had used on her and Leo was based on Jemma's own dendrotoxin. She'd recognized it instantly in her blood sample, right before she'd thrown a case of glass viles onto the floor with a satisfying, shattering crash.

The outburst had ebbed her anger for only a second and it hadn't made a dent in the crushing helplessness that was consuming her. She might as well be back on the floor, unable to move and waiting for the bullet that never came. She might as well be back in that room watching, unable even to cry out, as they stole him away.

The goop had been another dead end but attaching the toxin to the sugar had worked. The rat's were now healthy; free of alien cells and bits of metal. But Leo was gone.

None of these faces matched. This was taking too long and it could very well be a complete waste of time. She didn't know how much time they had left. Was whoever had taken him giving him food? She had to believe they wanted him alive but how long could they keep him that way?

"No...no!..." she hissed at the faces, "That doesn't even match the description I gave," she raged. "What idiot wrote this bloody program?"

"Simmons we're going to find him." Skye's voice broke through her haze.

"Damn right we are," she muttered but her vision blurred and she wiped her eyes impatiently so she could see the next face.

She felt Skye's hand on her shoulder. "It's OK," her friend whispered beside her.

They should be working, trying to find him, but she couldn't stop the tears from filling up her eyes or the sobs that shook her body when Skye wrapped her arms around her.

"I promised I wouldn't let anything happen to him." she told Skye shakily when she could speak.

"There was nothing you could have done," Skye soothed, rubbing her back. "There's nothing any of us could have done."

That wasn't true. Skye would have certainly woken up before she was jabbed with that syringe. May, Triplett and Coulson probably would have as well. Beside them she was weak and frail and unable to protect anyone. She shouldn't have let herself fall asleep. She should have thought of using the sugar last night instead of giving in to her weakness.

"I feel so helpless," she admitted, her voice barely a whisper.

"You are not helpless." Skye declared, pulling away and meeting her gaze. Jemma noticed her friend's face was wet with tears just like her own. "You and Fitz are the smartest, bravest people I have ever met and you're going to figure something out. Everyone is completely focused on looking for him and we are going to get him back even if we have search every corner of this world."

Jemma almost said that was impossible, they'd all be dead long before they could do that, but she stopped herself because she understood what Skye was trying to say.

They had to find Leo. That was their top priority and getting angry or breaking things or feeling sorry for herself was not going help.

Whoever the woman was she had chosen the wrong person to kidnap. Leo was her heart and even though she wasn't physically strong like the others her mind was a force to be reckoned with; she wasn't going to stop until she had him back.

Skye gently wiped the tears from Jemma's cheeks and then let her return the favour.

Jemma took a deep breath and her face set in determination.

"Let's find Fitz." she said.

/-/-/

Leo sat hugging his knees as he watched her indignantly from the corner of his new glass box, scuttling around her lab like a creepy bug. She didn't look his way but sorted enthusiastically through her samples as if he were some rabbit in a cage that didn't warrant her attention.

When he'd arrived, still numb from whatever her goon had injected him and Jemma with, she had introduced herself politely as Dr. Lewis while drawing a blood sample from him. When he'd managed to move his tongue he'd introduced himself as go to hell. She'd decided to go with agent Fitz instead.

She'd provided him with a box of food but he had stubbornly refused to open it. He was feeling really bad now, sweaty and dizzy with a pounding headache. He was so hungry but he was also a little nauseous which was confusing. Still, he guessed that whatever was in that box would make him feel even worse.

He cleared his throat to remind her of his presence and she gazed at him, her eyes fluttering towards the box impatiently for a moment before returning to her work.

'Look at her all confident,' he thought hotly. 'She isn't even a little bit concerned about what's coming for her, or me. She should be.'

Jemma was going to find him. Dr. Lewis had assured him that she wasn't hurt, that she'd been injected with the same paralytic substance he had and she would be completely recovered by now. He hated Dr. Lewis, she was probably a filthy liar but he had to believe that in this instance she was telling the truth. He wasn't going to consider the alternative.

"Are you going to kill me?" He demanded when he could stand the silence no more, trying not to let his voice quiver.

"Yes," she answered appearing almost apologetic.

"My team will come for me," he warned her. 'Or I'll find a way out.' He added to himself. This woman might think she was clever and resourceful, but so was he.

"I'm counting on that," she told him absently, eyes on her work.

"Are you now?" He shot back. What hubris she had, revealing her plans to him."Which part are you counting on exactly?" he spat. "The part where they stop whatever psychotic plan you've concocted?"

"I'm counting on them sending Skye," she said, finally turning her attention to him.

This caught him off guard and he frowned, not understanding. "Skye?"

Of course. Someone was killing off people with powers. That now included him but it also included Skye.

He wasn't just her new experiment. He was bait.

/-/-/

"Got her!" Skye cheered and Jemma slid over to gaze at her screen. "Ella Blake. She's not Shield though she's private security for a biochemist, Dr. Rachel Lewis."

It was her, Jemma was sure of it. She hated the name, it sounded far to childish and sweet for someone so brutish.

"What about Dr. Lewis?" She demanded, clicking on the link to the other woman's profile."

Rachel Lewis was indeed a Shield scientist, however she had left almost three years ago to work in the private sector.

"She owns her own research facility," Skye commented, surprised. "How much does Shield pay you?"

"Not that much," she shook her head, puzzled.

They sorted through the files on Rachel Lewis and stumbled across the source of her fortune.

In 2012, she'd received a hefty compensation package from Shield. Certainly enough to cover the facility if she'd budgeted wisely.

"Compensation for what?" Skye wondered, but the file was blocked. "Just a sec." she instructed before clicking the keys again.

Why did it matter? They had the address, they should be on their way already.

Jemma took a breath and forced herself to focus. Of course it mattered. They needed to get all the information they could if they wanted their rescue mission to be a success. One small detail could be the difference between life and death.

With a final click the file opened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fringe reference in this story is the name Ella Blake. Ella Blake is the name of Olivia's niece (I am assuming the last name is her father's but I think later she goes by Ella Dunham.)
> 
> The name Lewis comes from the doctor in Lost Girl Lauren Lewis (who made the joke "I've been away so long my control samples are mutating"). She is kinda good at doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. The first name Rachel is the name of Ella's mother (Rachel Dunham).
> 
> Symptoms of low blood sugar came of Webmed and HealthLink BC.
> 
> I have no idea how realistic it is to be able to attach a toxin to sugar. Science fiction. (maybe you can, I dunno.) Also the reason Jemma thought of it was because she had slept.
> 
> My spell check does not recognize Jemma as a name and I am mad at it XD.


	6. A Second Ability

"You can't kill Skye," Leo asserted, both to himself and Dr. Lewis. "She's too strong and our whole team will be with her. That's why you didn't send your goon to capture her on the Bus."

"In that situation you were the easier target," she agreed. "Ella was instructed to focus on you."

Ella? What kind of name was that for a thug? He would have changed his to something that inspired a little more fear. Like Fang or Crusher. No, those were stupid, he wasn't thinking clearly. His head hurt. So did his arm. This Ella person must have knocked his wound on the way over because it was bleeding again through the gauze.

"What will be different this time?" he demanded.

"I have you this time," she pointed out. "Skye is your friend right? She and the others will come for you."

He glared at her but said nothing.

She moved closer to his box, watching him curiously and he backed farther into his corner. A sad smile formed on her face. "They're going to walk right into my trap."

Leo felt a ball of fury form in the pit of his stomach however he couldn't think of an argument against what she was saying.

"What trap is that exactly?" he spat, trying to move the pair of scissors on the bench behind her using his power. Jemma had told him not to use it, that it would make him sicker faster, but he couldn't let this lunatic hurt Skye.

Dr. Lewis shook her head, indicating she was not going to reveal that part of her plan to him, before following his gaze to the scissors.

"You'll be trying that all day kiddo," she warned him. "There's a magnetic field around that box, keeps your powers in. I discovered that when I had the others."

"The others you killed," he shot back, unable to keep the rage from his voice as he realized she was telling him the truth. "You aren't killing me or Skye though. I won't let you."

He would find a way to stop her. He had too. Skye was his friend and she was good and kind and brave. They had laughed together, shared stories, shared snacks. When he'd been stuck in that box back on the Bus she'd changed her clothes and slipped in to hug him just because she knew he was scared.

"I won't let you." he repeated determinedly.

Dr. Lewis raised her eyebrows disbelievingly. "Am I making you angry agent Fitz?" she asked, curious again. She was peering in at him like he was a particularly interesting worm in a dish.

'Yes,' he thought, hating her. Silently he continued to glare at her.

She tilted her head at him but moved away, returning to her work bench.

"I don't enjoy it you know, killing people. It is a shame about Skye and Simmons," she lamented, placing vials into a centrifuge.

"Simmons doesn't have any powers," he told her swiftly, feeling a jolt of panic. "You don't need to do anything to her."

"Ella told me she found you with her," Dr. Lewis went on, ignoring his comment, "sharing the sleeping bag. Are you two close? Is she your girlfriend?"

"You don't need to hurt her!" he yelled, ignoring her questions.

"Unfortunately I do," she responded in a much lower volume. "There is some information I need from her. I've seen her file. She's very clever, amazing actually." she added, sounding genuinely impressed. "I can see why you like her so much. Brave too, which is sad because it probably means she won't talk easily. I hate torture. So does Ella but she's good at it."

"No!" he shouted standing up and feeling his head spin. He was shaking and he didn't know if it was from rage or terror or both. "You can't, I wont let you."

She stared at him, those horrible eyes taking in everything. "You can't do stop me," she informed him. "You'll be dead."

'No,' he thought, feeling tears fill his eyes. 'Not Jemma.'

He couldn't stop her though, she was right. He was too weak even to stand and he slid back down to the floor, feeling incredibly helpless and furious and terrified. The world was spinning around him and he couldn't stop himself from picturing Skye, lifeless in front of him or from hearing Jemma's screams.

Something broke inside of him, snapped like an elastic which had been stretched too far. His heartbeat accelerated and he felt his blood roar through him before the glass box was engulfed in flames.

They didn't burn him and they soon went out but his head felt like it had exploded and he fell sideways onto the floor.

"I thought you had another power,' Dr. Lewis was saying excitedly as though far away. "It seems to be tied to your emotions; fear, anger. Interesting. It's a good thing for agent Simmons you didn't have a nightmare."

/-/-/

The plane was in flight and Jemma was in the lab trying to put together a bomb which would create a blast large enough to knock out the door but subtle enough it wouldn't alert anyone to their presence. Skye was working on taking out their security.

The team was pretty sure they were walking into a trap. It was too easy, the clues too obvious. And then there was what had happened to Dr. Lewis. Everyone was certain she wanted Skye however their friend had refused to stay behind. She had insisted on coming because they were also fairly certain that Dr. Lewis was going to kill Leo. Probably after experimenting on him first like she had with the others.

Jemma's hands shook and she tried to think about something else. She needed to focus, they were landing in less than a hour and it was hard enough building this thing on her own. She needed her partner.

'You're just going to have to figure it out.' she told herself impatiently.

She'd seem him configure the wires thousands of times. She could do this. She had to.

/-/-/

Leo had never had such a headache in his life. It was as if someone was slicing apart his brain with a dull blade. He was too weak to move but he was shaking uncontrollably and drenched in sweat.

He couldn't focus. His thoughts were flying in a million directions but they kept coming back to the same horrifying realization. This entire time he'd been a human time bomb, ready to blow.

Dr. Lewis had known this. The glass of his new box was made to resist an explosion and had held up, though the edges were slightly warped and burned. The glass of his old box had been just ordinary glass. Thick enough to keep out small pieces of flying metal but not at all explosion proof.

Skye, Trip, May and Coulson had all spent hours inches away from a potential blast. And Jemma...

'It's a good thing for agent Simmons you didn't have a nightmare.'

He managed to roll over before he threw up.

/-/-/

"That should work," Jemma told May and Skye who had come to check in on her. Twenty minutes until they landed.

"Should?" May raised an eyebrow.

"It will work." she corrected herself and her friend gave her a small smile.

"And you packed the sugar poison?" Skye inquired, eyeing her backpack.

"It's all ready to go." she replied. "But you know you don't need to-"

"I'm coming," Skye interrupted, and her words invited no argument. "You guys need me. Fitz needs me."

Jemma sighed but she knew there was no way to talk her friend into staying behind, just as no one was going to be able to talk her into staying on the Bus.

'We're coming Leo,' she thought. 'Just don't give up.'

/-/-/

Leo heard the door open but it sounded unreal, like it was coming out of a radio. He cracked his eyes open. Everything was blurred, however he made out the hazy shape of Dr. Lewis. She pulled him away from the foul smelling mess and cleared out his mouth and face.

She took his arm and stuck something sharp into it causing him to jerk away from her. His skin tore and she swore under her breath before gripping his arm again gruffly and trying the needle once more. This time he was too weak to pull away.

"It's only sugar water kiddo," she assured him, almost kindly. "I'm not killing you yet."

'That's kind of you,' he thought angrily. 'Thank you so much for delaying my murder until after you kill my friend.'

He tried again, feebly, to pull away and she sighed impatiently.

"Why are you so stubborn?" She demanded. "You didn't need to suffer like this. You could have just eaten the food I gave you. But no." She placed a pillow under his head before continuing her lecture. "It's what I always told Lauren, the same applies to you, you're like a donkey with a nail in your head. People try to help you but you just ignore them and look where that gets you. Nowhere you want to be."

Who in the world was Lauren? And where did she get off lecturing him about not listening to her? Not so long ago she'd admitted to planning on murdering him and his friend and torturing his girlfriend. Who the hell did she think she was?

He was beginning to feel better. His headache was easing up and he no longer felt like vomiting, though his hands were still shaking.

With clear vision he saw Dr. Lewis leave the box and tie shut the door with a thick rope.

"Feeling better?" She asked, peering in on him.

"Yeah, a bit." He replied weakly struggling to sit up.

"Good," she nodded before returning to her work bench and hitting a few keys on her computer.

The top of the box hissed as gas flooded in.

"Wait! What? No, no, stop!" He exclaimed panicked.

But it was too late and he fell backwards onto the pillow as the world faded away.

\\-\\-\

He woke up in yet another glass box. It was identical to the other one, however he knew it was different because first of all it wasn't burned and second of all the room he was in was different. Rather than workbenches and beakers, this room was filled with computers and books. On one of the shelves there was a photograph of Dr. Lewis and another woman who looked very much like her but younger and not as creepy. Though he suspected Dr. Lewis only appeared creepy once you got to know her a little.

This box also smelled much better than the other one which he appreciated. He noticed the gauze on his arm had been changed and he now had a pillow and a blanket. Not that he was planning on sleeping.

Dr. Lewis sat at a nearby computer and shifted her attention to him when she heard him move.

"What did you do to me?" He demanded, sitting up and glaring at her.

The I.V. was still sticking in his arm, a long tube stretched up to a bag held by a metal holder. His headache was completely gone and his arms and legs weren't so heavy anymore.

"Oh, I had to move you," she waved her hand dismissively. "The other box smelled."

"Did you have to knock me out?" He shouted and she frowned disapprovingly at him.

"You might have tried to escape otherwise," she explained calmly. "I really didn't want to have to shoot you."

Did that make sense or was he simply growing used to the crazy of Dr. Lewis?

"How did you get me here?" He wondered. He didn't think she could have carried him.

"I have a cart for larger equipment." She informed him.

Oh goodie, she had a cart. Now she could tow around her victims with ease.

He noticed a new box of food had been brought for him. This one was open and had a note which read 'please eat.' An arrow pointed downwards.

He really had to get out of there.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fringe reference in this story is Dr. Lewis saying Fitz is like a donkey with a nail in his head. In 2x23 Over There Part 2 William Bell tells Walter Bishop "You always were as stubborn as a donkey with a nail in his head."
> 
> So not a lot of Jemma in this chapter but she will most likely be more in the next one.


	7. Dr. Lewis's Story

Jemma sat in the back seat of the vehicle, squished between Skye and Triplett as Coulson went over their plan again.

"How many smoke bombs did you make?" He asked her, turning his head slightly towards the back.

"Eight," she told him. "Though that may be a bit excessive... We'll probably only need four or five. I just thought too many is better than too few. You never know when you'll need a good smoke bomb so..."

"Eight is fine," May assured her.

"OK," she agreed taking a breath.

Skye and Triplett shot her concerned looks and she tried to smile reassuringly at them.

She was terrified, not of the mission though that did scare her a little, but of what they were going to find.

She was steeling herself for the worst possible scenario while at the same time trying to avoid thinking about what exactly that would be. Whatever they found, she was determine to hold it together until the mission was over; four other people would still be depending on her and she wasn't about to let them down.

Besides, Leo was going to be fine. He'd been in tough situations before, he was going to be OK. Of course he was, he had to be.

Inside her head, to comfort herself, she began singing her and Leo's favourite song. It was something they both did when they were apart and it reminded them that, whatever the distance between them, their connection remained.

"Whenever you miss me just sing it," she'd told him once. "Out loud, in your head it doesn't matter and I'll probably be singing it too."

He'd glanced at her skeptically, eyebrows raised. "I thought we didn't believe in psychic powers." He'd reminded her. "Skye doesn't count, there is a perfectly sound explanation-"

"I'll be singing it," she'd interrupted, rolling her eyes, " because if you miss me I'm probably going to be missing you too."

"Oh, well... That does make sense." He'd smiled embarrassedly at her, cheeks pink, and she'd shaken her head, chuckling before leaning forward to kiss him.

/-/-/

Leo was humming their favourite song while he sat in the corner of his box, trying to formulate an escape plan. It was difficult, however, because it was becoming increasingly challenging for him to concentrate and it was taking most of his concentration not to lose it again. He couldn't focus, couldn't stop remembering what Dr. Lewis was going to do to Skye and Jemma.

The song helped. It was comforting and he knew, wherever she was, Jemma was singing it too. They were still connected.

"I'm not eating your food you lunatic," he hissed at Dr. Lewis when her eyes drifted over to the box again.

"That's a shame," she replied sounding disappointed and turned back to her screen. "I picked out some good stuff. Do you like cream soda?"

"No, it's horrible," he lied stubbornly. "And yours will probably do something awful to me, like grow ears on my face."

She chuckled at him. "Glad you still have a sense of humour. Keep in the IV then or you'll start feeling sick again."

"I'll do what I want," he retorted but he had no intention of removing it. He had absolutely no desire to feel like he had ever again.

"I'm not actually going to have Ella torture agent Simmons," she informed him, suddenly serious again. "There are other ways to get the information about the goop. I just needed to make you angry. I wanted to see if my theory about the sulfur was right."

He wasn't sure he believed her (she might have just been trying to convince him to drink the cream soda) but he wanted to.

"What theory about the sulfur?" He couldn't resist wondering.

"Oh that!'" She grinned, looking very pleased he'd asked and giving him her complete attention. "Well, those tiny cells invading your body aren't only taking up sugar," she explained cheerfully. "They are also taking up large amounts of sulfur. Combine that with the fact that they are producing large quantities of heat resistant enzymes and Potassium nitrate as a final ingredient and-"

"You have gun powder," he realized. "The sugar is a carbon rich substitute for powdered charcoal."

That explained the radishes. They were high in sulfur which, like sugar, was being leeched from his body.

"Great job kiddo," she cheered. "Have some soda!"

As if that was ever going to happen.

"Don't call me that, I'm not a child." He demanded.

"Of course, sorry," she shook her head appearing almost embarrassed. "Old habit. You just remind me a little of... Never mind. I'll stop."

'That was easy,' he thought, surprised at her compliance.

"I remind you of Lauren don't I?" He guessed. "She's the one in the photograph isn't she? Was she your sister?"

"You're a smart one aren't you?" She said almost fondly. "Putting puzzles together."

"If you like me so much why do you want to murder me?" He challenged.

"I don't want to kill anyone," she answered unhappily.

He stared at her, trying to figure out if he believed her. To his amazement, he found he did.

A small spark of hope lit inside him. Maybe if she really didn't want to do this he could convince her not to.

First, though, he would need her to trust him. What was it that Trip had told him? If you want someone to trust you, you have to show them you trust them.

He considered the soda peeking out of the box between a package of raspberry-lemon cookies and a cup of Frankenberry cereal. After debating with himself for a moment he did the unthinkable. He removed the bottle from the box, unscrewed the plastic cap, and took a sip.

Her eyes flickered from her screen to him back and forth as he drank it like she was watching a skiddish animal she didn't want to frighten away.

"I thought you didn't like cream soda," she said quietly after a minute.

"I decided yours isn't ear flavored," he joked.

"I don't buy that one, it's too expensive," she smiled and he grinned back at her.

"Skye likes cream soda as well," he let her know. "Do you want one?" There were two more in the box.

"Don't do that," she warned, eyes sad. "Don't be nice to me. I'm still going to kill you."

He narrowed his eyes and placed the bottle down beside him. "Why?"

"You're dangerous," she answered. "Both of you, all of you."

"Skye isn't a danger to anyone," he asserted. "And Simmons is going to find a way to cure me or I'll die anyways. She'll probably find a cure though." He added optimistically. "Like you said she's amazing. I don't know how she missed the sulfur..." He trailed off, confused.

"She was probably too focused on killing the little monsters to pay close attention to what was inside." Dr. Lewis suggested fairly. "When you're trying to save someone you love irrelevant details don't seem to matter. They get overlooked or ignored."

"Did you try to save Lauren?" He asked.

She sighed and ran her hand over the top of her hair before nodding slowly. "I ignored details," she told him. "Details that were very relevant."

"I'm sure you did everything you could." He said kindly, astonished at himself for feeling sorry for her as he saw her eyes grow bright.

"That was the problem," she whispered, a faraway look in her eyes.

He tilted his head, "I don't understand." How did you fail because you did your best? Had she run herself to exhaustion like Jemma had?

She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Do you know how I plan on getting the information I need from agent Simmons?" She inquired.

"No," he answered, feeling that burst of panic again.

Her eyes turned cold. "I'm going to offer you. Your life in exchange for the information."

He frowned at her, not understanding. "But you have no intention of letting me live." He reminded her.

"That doesn't matter," she said. "She doesn't even need to believe me really. She'll pretend she does, lie to herself."

He couldn't look at Dr. Lewis. He finally understood her plan and it was horrible. She was horrible.

"You're going to say you'll spare me for the information about the goop and then when she tells you, you'll kill me." He raged at her. "That's cruel."

"I am cruel," she stated simply.

"I'll warn her," he vowed bravely. "I'll tell her you're lying."

"She won't listen to you," she told him. "I didn't listen to Lauren."

/-/-/

"1,2,3." Jemma counted.

Gas masks on, the team blocked their ears as the bomb went off with a small bang, cracking the door open. No alarm blared, yay Skye!

Jemma's bomb had worked perfectly, it was quiet (for an explosion) yet accomplish its task of gaining them entry.

Its effectiveness was irrelevant however because a crew of armed guards was waiting just beyond the door.

"Oh look," Coulson exclaimed in mock surprise, "a trap."

"We weren't expecting that at all," Skye added sarcastically before releasing two smoke bombs and filling the hall with light gray gas. Jemma had added a little more than smoke in the devices and the guards fell to the floor as the fentanyl took effect.

The team split up, Jemma and Triplett one way and Coulson, May and Skye the other. Jemma followed their dots on the tablet they were using to navigate the building.

They were in. Now they just had to find Leo.

/-/-/

"What happened to Lauren?" He asked softly.

Whatever Dr. Lewis's motivations were, he suspected they were rooted in how she lost her sister and if she was going to kill him, he wanted to know why.

She stared at him, pain clear in her face, for what felt like a long time before she spoke.

"I guess you deserve to know," she whispered. "You should know why you have to die."

He waited, still humming in his head, as she collected her thoughts.

"Three years ago," she began, "Lauren was accepted into Science and Technology, the Shield academy. She got in easily she was so smart, good with numbers, but she was so excited. 'Guess what Rachel, we can be agents together now!'" She mimicked a happy voice, smiling. "She never did go though. We lived in New York," she continued, smile fading. "When the Chitauri attacked I told her to stay home but she was so stubborn. 'I'm part of Shield now Rachel, I can't just hide in my house.'" She shook her head, "She hadn't even started at the academy yet. We fought, she couldn't understand why it was alright for me to go and not her. I thought I convinced her though. I have no idea why, she never listened to me. Lauren never listened to anyone."

She was staring of in the distance, seeing her story unfold and Leo felt a wave of sorrow for the smart, stubborn woman he'd never met. She sounded very brave.

"I was in charge of one of the shelters. The door opened with a code and only I knew it. I was supposed to protect them." She continued, sounding far away. "One of the Chitauri soldiers wanted to come in. He had Lauren." She let out a laugh that wasn't at all joyful. "Of course she had followed me. Why did I think I could convince her not to?"

She was silent for a full minute.

"He told me to open the door," she said, her voice barely audible and he leaned closer to hear what she had to say, even though he really didn't want to. "He said if I did, he'd let Lauren live. I knew he was lying but I wanted to believe him so badly. There were seventy two people in that shelter, seventy two innocent people who wanted to live. But she was my baby sister. We were going to be Shield agents together. I taught her how to tie her shoes..."

"You opened the door," he finished when he realized she wasn't going to.

She looked back at him. "He spared me, just me. As a reward." She smiled bitterly. "Then Shield rewarded me. They gave me compensation for my loss, for the trauma I had gone through. Paid me enough to buy all this." She held up her arms, indicating the facility. "I let seventy two people die and then I was rewarded for it." She looked disgusted. "And I watched Shield agents make my mistake over and over. Risking the lives of others to protect the people they cared for. Because they were people, people who didn't deserve to die but who needed to. People like your friend Skye. People like you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fringe reference in this story is the raspberry lemon cookies and the Frankenberry cereal. Two of Walter Bishop's favourite foods. The fentynyl is also a reference. It is used in What Lies Bellow to knock out the crazy sick people.
> 
> Lauren's story is inspired by the battle of New York fan fiction "What war brings" by Pyphais.
> 
> Also I don't know if Chitauri can speak English but I remember the guy who gave them to Loki in the movie did so maybe they do. Hmmm.


	8. To the Rescue

Jemma ran down the hallway alongside Triplett. The security office was just around the next corner and they intended to use the cameras to locate Leo.

The guards were already flooding out of the room so Trip made her wait around the corner, gas mask on, while he threw one of the smoke/gas bombs towards them. She heard several thuds, people falling to the floor, and he waved her forward.

They stripped the guards of their weapons and shoved them into a closet, jamming the door with a chair.

"Can you make me some more of those?" Trip grinned, as they adjusted the chair.

"Fitz and I will make even better ones," she promised, matching his optimism and smiling back.

"I bet he can make them follow people around before going off. The two of you will probably just use them to prank people, minus the fentanyl." He kidded as they entered the office.

"Maybe we'll fill them with itching powder," she added, holding on to the idea of Leo still being alive to pull pranks with.

"You do that I'm getting you back," he laughed and she chuckled with him as they looked over the monitors.

She knew he was laying it on a bit thick with the optimism for her sake (and likely his own as well, he and Leo had grown close in the past year) but she was alright playing along with it. It kept her focused. That and the song she still sung in her head.

"There he is!" She exclaimed, catching Leo's image in the room that looked like a library.

Her heart soared. He was alive! He was OK and he was here!

He was in a glass box, leaning against the wall, but sitting up and talking with that awful woman. It seemed as if they were arguing. Why was he speaking to her?

What did it matter? He was alive and it didn't look like she was hurting him. Considering how sick he was, he looked great. Animated and awake, maybe a bit angry but who wouldn't be if they had been kidnapped? Jemma herself was furious at this woman.

She felt an overwhelming need to get to him, cure him and then take him away from this place. Take him home.

"Where is he?" She demanded, trying to find the room on her map.

"Not far," Triplett answered, finding the place and beaming at her.

"Well let's go then!" She exclaimed, rushing out ahead of him.

"Wait!" He called suddenly, causing her to skid to a stop and almost fall over.

"What is it?" She asked, filling with dread. He wouldn't have called her back for a racing green unicorn.

"It's the others," he answered, eyes on the screen. "They're headed into an ambush."

/-/-/

"We aren't dangerous," Leo asserted.

Dr. Lewis had lost it, he was sure. Whatever happened in that shelter had messed with her and now she wasn't making sense. He was still hopeful, however, that he could break through to her or at the very least convince her to let her guard down long enough to escape.

"Oh aren't you?" She asked, sitting beside the glass wall. "Tell me, what would have happened to agent Simmons if you'd had a nightmare? Wouldn't you rather her alive than extra crispy?"

"Of course I would," he whispered. Her choice of words made him shudder, made him sick.

Jemma had been sleeping beside him almost the whole night. Peaceful and protective and completely unaware of the danger she was in. If something had happened to her...

"Would you give your life for hers?" Dr. Lewis inquired.

"Yes," he answered without hesitation. "But that's my choice, not yours."

"What if you don't know to make it?" She pressed. "You could have killed her, you could have killed your whole team and you had no idea."

He didn't want to talk about this anymore. Her words made him afraid in a way he'd never been before. For the first time in his life he was afraid of himself.

At least he would know, he tried to reassure himself. At least now he would recognize the feeling of an impending explosion.

'I'm not dangerous,' he thought. 'She's wrong.'

But he couldn't quite believe it. He decided to switch his strategy because this conversation was only upsetting him and, on top of that, it was getting him nowhere.

"Skye isn't dangerous," he told her. If he couldn't save his own life maybe he could at least talk her out of killing Skye.

She raised her eyebrows. "You do know of her ability, I'm sure she told you... Or you've seen it firsthand."

"She'd never use it again," he protested. "She doesn't even turn off lights anymore. Skye is a good person who'd never hurt anyone unless they tried to hurt her first."

"She doesn't turn off lights because she is afraid." Dr. Lewis contended. "She is afraid of herself because even she knows she's dangerous."

"Stop talking as if you know her," he spat, throwing his hands in the air as his anger returned. He took a breath and leaned against the side of the wall. He was struggling to stay calm, not to feel that band tightening again. His head throbbed and his hands shook. He hummed their song and felt better. "Skye isn't dangerous," he repeated. "She's in control and she's good. Please, I know you don't want to hurt her."

"You're right about that," Dr. Lewis replied. She actually seemed worried about him as she took in his face.

'That's how you know you're in trouble,' he thought grimly, 'when the psycho bent on murdering you thinks you look too sick.'

Even if he was doomed he had to try and save his friend.

"Don't then," he begged. "Let her go."

She smiled miserably at him. "Sorry kiddo, it's not that easy."

/-/-/

"Go," Jemma instructed. "Go help them, I'll find Fitz."

Trip nodded and she handed him the rest of the smoke bombs.

"You need these more than I do," she decided.

"Keep one," he said, handing it back.

"OK," she agreed as she stuffed it into her bag and they prepared to split up.

"And take a night night pistol," he grinned passing one to her. "Another fun filled FitzSimmons invention."

She smiled and shoved it into her pocket. "Be careful," she said. "And bring our friends back."

"You too," he replied.

They took off in different directions. She wasn't far from the library but how was she going to get in? Tablet in hand, she searched for a way.

"That could work," she whispered, finding a solution.

"Hey!"

Damn it. A guard exiting one of the labs had spotted her. She ran but he was close and grabbed her backpack. Fortunately she managed to squirm her way out of it and dash around the corner but she knew he wouldn't be far behind.

There were gunshots and thick grey smoke crawled around the corner towards her.

He'd shot her backpack! What an idiot. Probably thought she had a something useful in there. Surprise, she did; a smoke bomb.

She let out a quiet groan of frustration. Now the cure for Leo was destroyed, she'd need to wait and give him another one back on the bus. He could hold on till then though, of course he could. He'd held on this long already.

Jemma scrambled away from the gas and found a shelf to climb up so she could reach the ceiling. Then she hit one of the tiles until it was loose, raining debris on her hair and face and silently hoping no one would hear her.

When she managed to pop out the tile she shoved it aside and placed her tablet on top of it before she hauled herself into the crawlspace between the roof and the ceiling, choking slightly on all the dust.

It smelled and there were wires everywhere and she wasn't entirely sure it was safe but it was the best plan she had and, surprisingly, it looked like it was going to work.

/-/-/

Dr. Lewis's gaze shifted to the screen of her computer.

"It seems your team is giving me some trouble," she murmured.

The moment her attention was away from him, a panel from the ceiling fell to the floor with a clattering thud and someone (it was Jemma he realized excitedly) swung down from the hole left by the tile like a ninja and shot the startled Dr. Lewis in the chest. He flinched before he realized she'd used a night night pistol.

Dr. Lewis fell off her chair onto the floor, paralyzed but not dead. It surprised him that that mattered.

"Well that was cool," he said, a little stunned himself by Jemma's sudden presence.

She turned towards him, beaming as she lowered the pistol and it finally sunk in that she was actually there.

"Jemma!" He exclaimed filling with joy and rushing forward so he almost collided with the glass.

/-/-/

Jemma turned at the sound of his voice, feeling a bolt of joy as she heard it. He called her name and leapt forward, stopped by the glass. She noticed an IV attached to his arm, hopefully just fluids and sugar.

The door was tied shut with a rope and she dashed over to it, impatiently pulling the knot apart so she could open it.

The second the glass was no longer between them they were embracing each other and she felt light with relief as she soaked in his scent and the feel of him breathing. She pulled him closer and pressed her cheek against his, letting her tears fall onto his face.

It was cold and clammy, reminding her that they needed to hurry.

"You're OK," she breathed, pulling back enough to see his face. He was heartbreakingly pale and dark circles hung under reddened eyes but he was safe now. She was getting him out of there and then getting him better.

"Mostly," he grinned, pressing his palm against her cheek.

She closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the touch of his hand before taking it and pulling away.

"We need to leave," she informed him, carefully removing his IV and tugging him out of the box.

Metal floated towards him and settled onto his skin, rolling under his shirt and sticking to his face.

He rubbed the part of his forehead which now had a hard silver-grey patch on it, clearly alarmed

"We'll get it off," she promised, hurrying him along. "I did it, I managed to cure the rats. You're next of course, we'll have you better in no time. The sugar was the solution, attaching the toxin to it meant those greedy little monsters sucked it all up leaving none for the rats."

"I don't think I tell you often enough how amazing you are," he said proudly and she squeezed his hand, her heart warm.

He hesitated when they passed Dr. Lewis and as he looked down at her Jemma was sure she saw concern.

"We need to go," she reminded him. Why did he always need to sympathize with the bad guy?

Not always, she reminded herself, only when they pretended to be nice to him. She wondered what this woman had done to gain his concern. Maybe it had to do with the empty bottle of cream soda in the glass cage. She loved his warm, open heart but she worried one day it would get him into trouble. She'd have to talk to him later about not taking candy from strangers.

He nodded and let her lead him away.

She couldn't believe she had him, here holding her hand. She'd been so terrified she'd never see him again, this wonderful person she loved so much.

"Leo," she said softly as the made their way into the hall.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I don't think I tell you often enough either, how amazing you are." She told him, smiling as he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.

"Together we're incredible," he whispered.

"So we better stay that way," she agreed, griping his hand tighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fringe reference is the green unicorn. Walter mentions it in 2x05 Dream Logic.
> 
> Jemma's thoughts on Dr. Lewis are partly inspired by her feelings about Ward in the show and her debate with Fitz about evil babies in notappeper's story Oh to Be Young.
> 
> Originally Jemma used a night night gun but I realized those are too big to keep in your pocket so it was changed to the smaller pistol.


	9. Explode

"Dr. Lewis is after Skye," Leo warned her as they dashed down the hall to where the dots on the screen of the tablet indicated the rest of their team was.

"We knew that, she wanted to come anyway," Jemma informed him, seeing him flinch as another piece of metal rolled under his shirt and fused to his body.

Why did this building have so much bloody metal? What was wrong with wood or plastic or ceramic? That tray could have definitely been made with plastic.

He was struggling to keep up, she could tell, and his face glistened with sweat between the increasing patches of grey. His hand was cold and his grip was weakening.

'Hold on,' she thought, slowing down slightly. 'We'll get you better, just keep fighting a little longer.'

There was loud popping from the direction they were headed and they hurried towards the sound of gunshots to the aid of their teammates. Jemma took out the night night pistol, ready to use it the moment they crashed through the door into the lab where the dots were.

It was complete mayhem in the room as their friends fought a small army of guards. Skye had fallen against one of the benches and the side of her head was bleeding as she looked up hazily at her attacker who, to Jemma's horror was pointing a gun down on her.

There wasn't even time for Jemma to aim the pistol before the guards gun went off. She cried out, and Skye's eyes widened in terror but nothing happened. The bullet went the other direction, towards them, and settled onto Leo's cheek, melting onto his skin.

He and Skye exchanged a glance and their faces set in concentration. The gun of every guard flew into the air causing them all to look up in surprise before being knocked out by a member of Jemma's team.

A few of the guns floated towards Leo but Skye glared at them and they fell to the floor.

"Did you do that?" Coulson gasped, turning to Skye.

"Did you just stop a bullet with your mind?" Trip demanded incredulously.

Skye smiled and tilted her head towards Leo. "We both did." She informed them.

They turned towards him and their expressions changed from impressed to alarmed at his state.

"Two heads are better than one," he said shakily.

Jemma could see he was trembling. His face was sweaty and ghost-like between smooth metal and he wobbled unstably where he stood. She rushed forward to steady him, a tight knot of fear twisting in her stomach. He was almost out of time.

"We need to get him back to the Bus," she commanded, "I need to give him the sugar toxin very soon."

"We can carry him," May offered, moving towards them.

"No!" Leo exclaimed suddenly, squirming away from Jemma, closing his eyes and grimacing like he was in pain. "No, just get out and I'll follow."

May raised an eyebrow but they didn't protest. They probably thought he was too stubborn to be carried, that he was being ridiculous but they had no time to argue with him. She knew though that it was something else. He was lying and she felt the knot in her stomach tighten painfully because she knew why.

/-/-/

Leo felt it again. That awful stretch of the elastic, straining the band. His heart was beating rapidly and he knew what was was coming.

"Out!" He yelled to his teammates, pushing them towards the door. He could lock it behind them then get himself far enough away he wouldn't hurt them. They complied because they trusted him and let him herd them into the hall.

Jemma was last and the second the others were safely outside she closed the door and locked it herself.

"What are you doing!" He cried as he heard the others calling to them from the other side.

She ignored his question and led him away from their shouts, sitting him down at one of the stools before hurriedly rummaging through the overhead cabinets.

"Jemma you have to go," he asserted. "It's not safe. Those cells, they're not just taking up sugar-"

"They're taking up sulfur," she finished, still searching. "Damn it, where is it."

"Jemma-"

"I know!" She snapped. "You're going to let out an explosion. I'm not letting you."

"The explosion won't burn me," he assured her. "They're also producing-"

"Heat resistant enzymes," she interrupted, rapidly reading labels. "I know. I figured it out when I was testing the sugar toxin. It's still going to kill you, you can't survive doing it now, it takes too much sugar, too much energy. You aren't strong enough."

"You don't know that," he protested even though he knew she was probably right. His head was aching again, his hands were shaking and his vision was starting to blur. He felt himself on the edge of breaking. The band was ready to snap.

"Sweetheart please," he begged. "You need to go, there's no time." He was frightened, he didn't want to die, but he couldn't stand the idea of taking her with him. This was the one thing he'd rather do alone, the one time he'd rather leave her behind.

She stopped what she was doing and stared at him, eyes filled with determination.

"You need to trust me," she insisted. "I can fix this. Please Sweetheart, just trust me."

She sounded so certain. He met her gaze and knew he did trust her, totally and completely. With his life, with both their lives. She could do this. She was Jemma Simmons and she was amazing.

He took a deep breath, "OK. What do you need me to do?"

She beamed at him and the love shining from her face made him brave. "Don't explode."

"Right," he agreed. "Don't explode."

Easier said than done, but she wasn't giving up so neither would he.

Eyes closed, using all of his concentration he held himself together, slowing the stretch of the band as he heard her sort through the cabinets.

"Oh good, here it is," she whispered, probably so not to startle him. "I'm going to inject a sedative into your arm OK?" She let him know softly after a few seconds.

Keeping his eyes closed, he nodded.

Very slowly she took his arm and he felt her cool fingers between the patches of metal before the needle pricked through his skin.

The sharp little pain caused the band to stretch and he struggled to keep it from snapping.

'We are not dying here,' he resolved. There was no way in hell he was going to let the fireball erupt out of him, he couldn't let Jemma get hurt because he was too weak to keep it in.

Jemma wrapped her arms around him, "Hold on," she instructed firmly. "You can do this."

He held his breath, wishing she had run. 'She fixed it,' he told himself, 'you can't explode now, Jemma stopped it.'

Remarkably, his body relaxed and he felt a wave of calm as the sedatives took effect. The band loosened and it was over.

"It stopped," he breathed, pulling back and staring at her in amazement. "You did it!"

"We did it," she corrected joyously as she pressed her forehead to his.

They grinned at each other, giggling in relief. That had been absolutely terrifying.

Footsteps clapped behind them and he spun around, getting to his feet. There was another door at the back of the lab, it probably led to the center of the building where they kept the chemicals and extra equipment. Dr. Lewis stood in the doorway, pointing a gun at them.

"Don't do this," he pleaded, placing himself between her and Jemma.

"Sorry kiddo," she said, her eyes bright with misery.

There was a bang as she pulled the trigger and pain exploded through his chest. The elastic stretched and snapped before he even knew it was happening and hot orange flames erupted from his body.

He fell into darkness but before he did he was sure he felt someone catch him. Someone was demanding that he not give up, not die and he was certain it was Jemma. Or his mind was playing tricks on him, making him hear what he wanted to even though it was impossible, and he was only believing the lie because he wanted to so badly.

No, it was her. He knew it was real and it was her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do not worry! There is another chapter! It doesn't end here.
> 
> There is a Fringe reference in this chapter but you won't know what it is until the next one. A hint to those who watch the show it is from 3x15 Subject 13. Maybe you will guess, and then you will know what exactly happened at the end.
> 
> Whenever I spell grey it gets autocorrected to Greg... Huh.


	10. What Happened

Jemma was holding him. Leo knew it was her the instant he awakened, even before his eyes were open. He couldn't explain exactly how he knew it was her, but he was certain it was.

He managed to crack his eyes open and her face slowly came into focus. Only an inch or two away from his own it was the only thing he could see. It was all he needed to though.

She was sleeping, peaceful and dreaming, her head resting on the pillow beside him. One of her arms stretched across his stomach, holding onto him, and the other was curled around her head so that her fingers brushed the top of his hair. The front of her body pressed against his side so he could feel her gentle breathing as well as hear it.

She was completely unharmed. Her face wasn't burned at all and he doubted she would have been able to sleep in this position if her body was either, it would be too painful. It already looked a bit uncomfortable; the arm around her head was probably going to be numb when she woke up.

How had she escaped the blast? She'd been less than a foot away from him when he'd erupted and he'd seen the flames shoot to the other side of the room, torching the wall.

It was impossible but he didn't care, it was real. By some miracle they were both alive and he hadn't hurt her at all. He stared at her, overjoyed, relieved and amazed all at once. He watched her sleeping face incredulously for a full minute before he realized she'd probably want him to wake her. He would, if it was him.

Slowly, because he still felt weak and uncoordinated, he leaned forward and kissed the side of her mouth.

Her eyes blinked open and a smile spread across her face, lighting it up like sunshine.

"Leo?" She breathed.

"Hey," he manage to whisper, his throat dry.

Her grin widened even more and she scooped him up into a sitting position, holding him tightly against her. The sudden movement took him by surprise but he laughed and returned her embrace, feeling his strength slowly returning.

'Perks up like a daisy this one,' he mused to himself. 'Right from sleep to bouncing around in two seconds.'

"Oh sorry," she apologize, moving back slightly to see his face, their arms still wrapped around each other. "That must have given you a bit of a head rush."

"It's fine," he assured her chuckling. "Just surprised me a little."

"You always take forever to wake up," she teased and he closed his eyes contently as she kissed his forehead. "How are you feeling?" She asked softly.

"Confused," he admitted. "Relieved, incredibly happy, ecstatic actually, but confused."

"You thought we'd both be dead," she guessed, turning serious.

His lip quivered and he let out a shaky breath feeling his eyes grow hot. "I'm so sorry Jemma," he whispered.

"Why are you apologizing?" She demanded. "It wasn't your fault, if that horrible woman hadn't shot you..." Her expression was furious for a moment before she shook her head and it softened again.

"Is she OK?" He asked. "How am I OK? How did you... How did I not... Oh my God." He felt tears roll down his cheeks. "They're gone right? The cells are dead?"

"Of course they are," she soothed, wiping the tears away before pulling him towards her. "I gave you the sugar toxin the moment you were strong enough. It's OK, it's over. You didn't hurt anyone."

"How?" He sniffed, pressing his face into her shoulder. How was any of this happening?

She leaned away again her eyes filled with warmth. "Because you didn't want to." She replied, smiling.

He was silent, not understanding.

"The flames bent around me," she explained. "Around both of us," she added, frowning slightly at the mention of Dr. Lewis before her smile returned. "You didn't even singe my clothes, not a single thread. It wasn't even hot."

"The flames went around you?" He marveled.

She raised her eyebrows and nodded, head tilted slightly to the side like she was telling him the end of a particularly unbelievable story, which she sort of was. "It was astounding or... at least it would have been if..." This time her eyes filled with tears and her voice grew quiet as she continued. "I thought I was going to lose you," she told him. "The metal on your body protected you from the shot but the explosion took too much from you. You were so cold, so still and I was sure..." She shook her head, cheeks dripping and he held her face between his hands, wiping the tears away with his thumbs before leaning forward and holding her again.

"I'm fine now," he insured her, rubbing her back. "Thanks to you."

She pressed her face into his neck and he felt her wet, warm tears. For a while neither of them spoke.

"We all saved you," she said finally pulling away a little, still quiet. "The others knocked the door open and someone shot Dr. Lewis. She's alive," she added quickly, seeing his expression. "It hit her shoulder. She wasn't putting up much of a fight anyhow. I think she was shocked by what happened. Then May and Trip carried you to the truck," she continued, "and I held onto you while we drove, we went so fast but it seemed too slow still. You were so cold. Skye took your hand and...I'm not sure what she was doing but it was almost as if... She kept mumbling something. I think she was saying 'on'."

She looked past him, as if she was trying to wrap her mind around a difficult concept. "This is going to sound really crazy," she said, turning back to him, "but I think she was trying to keep you alive. And I didn't know what else to do so I put my hand on top of both of yours and I started thinking it too, I said it a few times and she looked over at me and it... It felt like it was working. I don't know how much help I was in the truck. I'm not... Like Skye. But we got you to the Bus and I put an IV in, just regular sugar at first, until you were stable. Then I gave you the sugar toxin and killed those little monsters for good. You were better but you were still asleep. The others stayed for a while but then they all went to bed. I was so tired but I couldn't leave so I just got in beside you and held onto you. I can't do what Skye can but I kept thinking: on. I must have fallen asleep."

Leo listened intently to her story, astonished that he believed every word. Of course he did, it was Jemma. She'd never lie to him about something like that even if she could. And she was so smart, smarter than anyone even him. If she thought it had happened it probably did.

"Maybe I'm a robot," he joked feeling a glow as she chuckled at him. "A robot with a mechanical heart that stays on when you tell it to."

"Maybe your heart is so magical that it still worked after all that happened," She kidded along, placing her hand over it and kissing him.

It was wonderful and it took him a moment to register what she'd said.

"Magic Jemma? Really? I'm an engineer not a wizard," he complained.

"Oh right because being a robot makes loads more sense than magic," she argued playfully.

"Uh huh, actually it does," he pressed, grinning and she rolled her eyes before hitting him lightly with the pillow.

"OK Mr. Robot," she giggled.

"Beep, beep, beep," he giggled back.

Her eyes grew bright again, however this time they were filled with joy. "I love you," she said.

"I love you too," he replied. The way his heart felt just then, he almost believed it was magic.

She settled against him, her cheek brushing his and they laughed and joked and told stories for hours. They were both still a little tired but they didn't want to leave each other even for sleep. Though he knew they never really left each other, whatever happened they were always connected.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sure auto correct, Hogwarts is a word but grey isn't. Sigh. XD.
> 
> The Fringe reference in the last chapter is the fact that the blast went around Jemma and Dr. Lewis. It is a stolen idea from episode 2x15 of Fringe (which belongs to its creators.) In the episode child pyrokinetic Olive (among other powers) is purposely activated by Walter (he wanted her to use a different power) by her friend Nick pretending to be murdered (Walter's idea). This understandably scares the pants off her and she unleashes a blast of fire. But fear not! Tiny Nick and his teddy bear Snuggles are spared the flames; they bend around him.
> 
> The idea in this story is that Fitz had subconscious control of the blast.
> 
> The Fringe reference for this chapter is the magic robot heart from the story Walter tells Ella in Brown Betty. Walter makes it robot, Ella makes it magic.


	11. Flowers vs. Bugs

Jemma sat in the kitchen, enjoying the pleasant smell of baking pastries in the air while looking over the team's potential new cases.

"How so many incredible things happen unnoticed right under people's noses is beyond me," she told Leo, who was scrubbing the dishes. "Here's a case of wild flowers blooming a rainbow of colours in a midwinter meadow. Now that would be a sight to see, flowers poking up through a layer of snow. The photo is beautiful, oh I hope we get to go!"

A photograph showed them, bright patches of color against white snow. Not exactly alarming but definitely something to grab your curiosity.

Leo came over and embraced her from behind, leaning down so his chin rested on her shoulder as he examined the picture on the screen.

"That'd be a nice place to have a picnic," he decided.

"We could take a few samples while we're there," she added, enjoying his warmth.

He chuckled and pulled his arms away, kissing the top of her head before returning to the dishes. "Better flowers than bugs," he joked.

She rolled her eyes, he could be so silly about certain things. Insects were just as good as flowers but he was probably worried about them getting in his sandwich.

She returned her attention to the cases. Slightly more urgent was the case of frozen heads which were being stolen from cryonic storage facilities. Even more puzzling than what anyone would want frozen human heads was that the thieves, Shield suspected, were shapeshifters.

The oven beeped and she heard him removing the pastries.

"Shapeshifters!" She gushed after filling him in. "What fun it would be to see one of those in action. Maybe take a few blood and tissue samples..."

She continued to read through the files as he finished in the kitchen, keeping him updated on what she found.

"There you go!" Leo exclaimed proudly, setting down a heaping plate of pastries. "Some famous Simmons blackberry pastries...I hope I got it right... You'll tell me if I messed up the recipe won't you?"

"I'm sure you've mastered it," she assured him, setting aside her tablet and rising to kiss his cheek before returning to her seat.

He took the seat beside her, munching on a bowl of carrots and broccoli, and watched her take one onto her napkin.

"You're really off sweet things aren't you?" She mused as he crunched one of the carrots.

He nodded, "It's awful, all I can stomach is vegetables," he said as if it were some horrible profanity and she giggled at him wondering how long that would last.

"Why would you make pastries then?" She asked.

"For my superhero girlfriend, because she loves them," he answered, gazing fondly at her and she blushed.

"I don't know if I fit the exact definition of a superhero..." She protested.

"Well then the definition should be changed," he insisted. " Because what you did, finding a cure and stopping me from exploding, that was incredibly super and hero. And on top of that, you should have seen the way you swung down from the ceiling! You were my hero."

She almost pointed out that he had exploded anyway but she didn't really want to think about that. She still remembered the feel of his cold, lifeless form in her arms.

"We're all pretty super," she agreed, feeling very good because he'd called her his hero, before taking a bite of the pastry. He'd got the recipe just right, on his first time alone too. Clever Leo. "These are perfect," she told him happily. She was about to add 'we should share them with the others,' when Skye skipped into the kitchen breathing in deeply as she smelled the baking.

"What are you making in here?" She asked and her face lit up when she saw the pastries. "Oh yum! Can I try one?"

"Go ahead," Leo offered, sliding the plate towards her. "They're blackberry, it's Simmons' family recipe."

She took one and tore off a piece to pop in her mouth. It looked as if she enjoyed it very much.

"I'll go get the others, Jemma announced. "Everyone should enjoy these."

She kissed Leo goodbye, feeling a tightness in her chest for a moment at the thought that he might not be there when she returned. But she couldn't live her life worrying that the man she loved was in danger each time she left. They were agents of Shield and they had an incredibly hazardous job however, so far, they had always found their way back to each other. She needed to keep believing that they always would so she shook off her apprehension and smiled at him before hopping away to find the others.

/-/-/

Leo watched her skip away feeling immensely grateful that she was alive. Things could have gone so differently. If his powers he hadn't bent the blast...

He still felt sick thinking about it, how scary it had been. How scary he had been.

Skye must have noticed his expression change because she sat down beside him and tilted her head questioningly. "What's wrong?" She asked gently.

He glanced at her briefly before looking away. "I could have killed her," he murmured. "I've never been afraid like that before. I've never been afraid of myself."

"Yeah, that's not easy," she sighed, her voice filled with understanding.

He shook his head quickly, not wanting her to misinterpret him. "You have nothing to be scared of." He insisted. "You can control your powers. We all trust you."

"Sometimes I don't trust myself." She admitted.

"You saved me," he reminded her. "Jemma told me what you did."

She picked at the pastry not saying anything and he worried he'd upset her. He knew how sensitive she was about her ability though it wasn't something they ever spoke about.

"Do you remember when I killed Jeremy Fischer?" She asked slowly and he nodded because he did. It was the only time she had ever used her ability to kill.

"I was hurt, I didn't have a weapon and he was going to shoot May. She was going to die because she had come back to protect me even though she was unarmed too. I couldn't stop it, I felt so helpless. Everything happened so fast, he was about to pull the trigger and I just thought 'off.'" She shook her head, smiling though she didn't look happy. "Off. Who thinks that? Not stop or don't or no, just off. And he turned off." She paused, and he could tell she was remembering that day, seeing it. He waited patiently for her to continue.

"I was so scared," she said at last. "I was scared of what I could do, what I was. I didn't want to be around people because I was convinced I was dangerous, I was a monster."

"You're not," he asserted gently, placing his hand on her arm. "You're Skye, good, kind Skye and you've saved every one of us at some point. You saved May that day."

She smiled at him, a happy one this time. "That's what made me brave again. You all believing in me, believing I was still me no matter what else I was. So I let myself be around other people and I didn't hurt anyone. I never hurt anyone again using that power. I never used it at all until yesterday."

"When did you figure out you could do that?" He wondered. If she hadn't been using her power how had she known what to do?

"I didn't," she said, sounding almost guilty. "Fitz you need to understand you were so far gone... You were like ice and you were barely breathing. I didn't even think you were breathing except that Simmons kept insisting you were. And the look on her face... It was like she knew you weren't going to make it but she was trying to convince herself, all of us, you were. I didn't know if it was going to work or if it would kill you but I did know we didn't have any other options so I took your hand and I focused on you being alive and I thought 'on.'"

"Well it worked," he told her brightly, hoping she saw that he wasn't angry with her for using her power on him. On the contrary, he was really glad she had. "And I'm thankful for that."

"Me too," she agreed and they grinned at each other.

"You're too soft to be a monster anyway," he teased. "What kind of monster cries at the end of a children's movie?"

"Hey, that little robot steals your heart," she defended. "And I remember a certain someone needing Simmons to hold their hand on that flying saucer ride."

"She was scared too," he informed her. She raised her eyebrows at him. "OK, I guess we're both too soft to be monsters," he conceded.

"Way too soft," she agreed. "Besides," she went on, serious now, "I've figured out that being a monster is a choice. We both chose not to use our powers to hurt people so we didn't. Stop making yourself crazy thinking you could have hurt her because you couldn't have. It was never a possibility."

Her words extinguished the fear and guilt that had been swirling around inside him. It was never a possibility. It was a choice and an easy one to make for both of them.

/-/-/

Jemma was snuggled up against Leo, their legs warm under a blanket and a large book on their laps.

"Oh wow, look at the colours on that spider!" Leo exclaimed, tapping the page. "It looks just like the flower."

"Didn't I tell you 'creepy crawly things' were fun?" she laughed, using his word for arachnids, insects, roundworms, flatworms, earthworms and just about anything that wasn't a vertebrate.

"Yeah, well the flower is winning here," he grinned, pointing to the next page where an orchid disguised itself as a female bee to trick male bees into trying to mate with it so it could be pollinated.

"That's from the Orphys genus," she told him. "The flower actually smells like the female bees."

"What a trickster," he joked. "And that one puts flowers in the lead."

"Are you actually keeping score?" She chuckled.

"Yeah, I am," he replied. "And flowers are winning."

She shook her head but his game was adorable. Even if she was never going to pick a side.

"Well write down the points because it's time to go to sleep," she said, closing the book.

"OK," he agreed, yawning.

They were in her bunk tonight, which was why they were reading her book. Coulson had recently given them permission to sleep in the same room.

"You haven't been any less productive since being together so I don't see why sharing a room would change that," he'd shrugged when they'd asked. "Besides Simmons maybe you could convince Fitz to get up a bit more quickly when we need you for something."

She doubted that but she had nodded enthusiastically, willing to try.

"And the rule still stands," he'd reminded them. "No sex on the bus. You sleep, that's all. Or make gadgets, that's fine too."

Make gadgets. Right before going to sleep? Coulson had such a sense of humour.

Though if they were together they would probably discuss some of their ideas, maybe sketch out some blueprints, do some reading on the subject. Hmm...

The light flicked off.

"Goodnight Jemma," Leo said sleepily, finding her face and giving her a kiss. He was warm and the touch of his lips sent a small spark across her skin.

"Goodnight Leo," she replied before laying down her head and closing her eyes.

It didn't make much of a difference, she hadn't been able to see at all with them open either it was so dark. Leo didn't like the dark but she'd discovered it bothered him far less when she was there. He fell asleep after a short time and she listened as his breathing became steady and even.

'He's not going anywhere,' she assured herself. 'You can sleep, no one is coming to take him. And if anyone dares you'll find him.'

He'd called her his hero. Maybe she was because she would always protect him, always come for him. She felt safe sleeping beside him because she knew he'd do the same for her. She was his hero and he was hers and that made them stronger.

She let herself drift off to sleep.

/-/-/

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fringe reference in this chapter is the shapeshifters stealing frozen heads. It is the plot of 2x04 Momentum Deferred. Olivia's boss Broyles asks her very seriously: "Why are shapeshifters from another universe stealing frozen heads?"
> 
> The movie Fitz mentions is WallE :)
> 
> Some of Fitz and Skye's conversation is inspired by a quote from Avatar the Last Airbender. Aang talks to Katara about his thoughts on going into the Avatar state and he tells her "It was scary, I was scary."
> 
> Simmons is totally a hero and not only for protecting Fitz but for protecting everyone and for doing the right thing no matter how hard or scary it is.


End file.
